john-savage1960-575-575114 Reviews

Scotch on the Rocks (1973– )

Only shown once

[10/10 · 8 June 2015]

I write this from memory so forgive me for any inaccuracies. This was an adaptation from the book by Osmond & Hurd (Douglas, the Conservative politician)and was set in a Scotland campaigning for independence, but by some factions using terrorist methods, as opposed to constitutional means. It was shown by the BBC only once to my knowledge as it was blamed for the rise of would be Scottish terrorist organisations, not to mention the impact of events in Ireland at the same time. It would be great to see it again, given recent constitutional events, but I suppose that all the copies have been destroyed.

Would it be asking too much for the BBC to release it on DVD?

The Great Train Robbery (2013)

Not a bad start

[19 December 2013]

I had high hopes for this and having watched the first episode I was not let down. The acting was of a high standard, including Martin Compston's London accent! Small points I felt needed more explaining, including who the characters were. Unless you have some knowledge of the crime then you may have been puzzled by who all the protagonists were.

A scene showing the train leaving Glasgow Central Station clearly displayed a sign saying "Glasgow" when in fact it should have been Glasgow Central as there is also Glasgow Queen Street station. In the same scene, two policemen were wearing helmets. To the best of my knowledge no Scottish Policemen wore helmets in 1963, including British Transport Police (correct me if I'm wrong), also the FFR Land Rovers looked from a later era.

Overall though it was an entertaining programme and I'm looking forward to part two.

Having now watched part two it was of an equally high standard. I did notice though that the weather seemed to be more in line with August (the first programme had no leaves on the trees etc).

I did feel however that more time could have been taken to explain where Reynolds and Edwards were when they were on the run as the programme implied they were in the UK when in fact they spent time in Mexico.

Another slight glitch was when Roy James made his "escape", he landed on hard packed earth where in fact he had a specially prepared "landing strip" made of dug up earth to lessen the impact of his fall.

Apart from that, this was a most enjoyable two parter and hopefully we'll see more of the same

Doors Open (2012 TV Movie)

very disappointing

[1/10 · 7 January 2013]

A good book ruined by an awful screenplay and changes to characters.

The main plot of the book, with the policeman suspecting something was up concerning the main characters, was disregarded. Also the main villains in the book were Scandanavian but in this they were Geordies / Scots. Considering that one of the screenplay writers is of Scandanavian origin then you would think that this would be left in.

The heist itself was a joke, it would have been much better left as per the book. I may be wrong but I had the impression that it was a comedy drama as opposed to a drama.

Very, very poor.